Investigations underway following claims a group of security guards used surveillance cameras to spy on female shoppers

Westfield Sydney is investigating claims its security guards used surveillance cameras to spy on unsuspecting female shoppers, categorising images of the women according to race, body type and clothing into a secret shared file.

In a statement released by Westfield in response to A Current Affair'sreport on Tuesday night, Scentre Group chief executive Peter Allen said he was appalled by the allegations and determined to get the facts as quickly as possible.

“We have very strict policies regarding the use of CCTV and I want to know as a matter of urgency why those policies have not been followed,” he said in the statement.

“We have been in touch with the senior management of Securecorp this evening and have asked for an explanation.

"When we have the facts about what has happened, who was involved and how it was allowed to happen, I will make a further statement.”

Westfield Sydney. (A Current Affair)

In an exclusive report, A Current Affair last night revealed hundreds of women who visited the Sydney shopping centre in the past 18 months had been filmed, filed and shared among a small group of security guards observing them from a control room.

There is understood to be up to 1000 images on file, which have been sorted into categories in regards to race, body type or clothing attire.

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SecureCorp, the company the security guards are employed by, have now been contacted by Westfield Sydney for an explanation.

In a statement, the security company said they had launched an investigation, with any employees found to breach policies and procedures to be dealt with accordingly.

Security guards at Westfield Sydney have been using surveillance cameras to film and share images of unsuspecting female shoppers. (A Current Affair) (A Current Affair)

Emails from A Current Affair viewers, including security guards, say the misuse of security cameras particularly against women has been happening for years and is still happening in other shopping centres around Australia.

A former unidentified SecureCorp security guard told A Current Affair says when he was in the job filming of female shoppers was rife

"Zooming in if girls were sitting down with short skirts, they'd zoom in between their legs," the former security guard said.

"A lot of it was CCTV footage, they would either burn it to a disk or put it on USB and take it home for their personal use."

Westfield Sydney and SecureCorp both declined A Current Affair's requests for an interview.